St George The Martyr pupils bring River Fleet above ground with chalk art

THE River Fleet was brought bubbling to the surface in Holborn on Friday, as pupils at St George The Martyr primary school covered Doughty Mews in chalk drawings inspired by the long-buried Thames tributary.

The project, organised by Doughty Mews architects Ash Sakula as part of the London Festival of Architecture, saw the street closed for the afternoon so the budding artists could let their imaginations flow.

Event co-ordinator Maisie Rowe said the idea came from research she had done on the history of the area and gave the pupils the chance to “reclaim the street”. Ms Rowe added: “By closing the road and asking the children to draw on the streets we give a part of the city to them.”

Architect Cany Ash added: “The theme of the London Festival of Architecture this year has been memories, and we realised we could get quite personal with that. We have been based on this street for 35 years, so there are lots of people that walk along it, and I’m curious about them, but you can’t break the city rule of not talking to strangers. This was an opportunity for us to break those rules.”